NASCAR Cup Series playoff standings and scenarios for St Louis race today

The NASCAR Cup Series playoffs land just outside of St Louis later today (Sunday September 7) when the 16 championship hopefuls race off in the Enjoy Illinois 300.

There are a ton of potential scenarios in play at Gateway (3pm ET, USA) as drivers bid for the win and automatic qualification for the Round of 12, while some big names (Joey Logano, yes you) are in danger of a shocking early elimination ahead of next weekend's cutoff at Bristol.

We already have one driver through to the final 12 after Chase Briscoe claimed a brilliant victory at Darlington last weekend.

A chaotic race had a far bigger impact on the standings than anticipated, with reigning champion Logano now sitting below the cut line in 13th, along with Austin Dillon (-8), Alex Bowman (-19) and Josh Berry (-19).

Let's get into the current standings and all of the potential playoff scenarios heading into this afternoon's action at Gateway.

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NASCAR Cup Series playoff standings ahead of St Louis

Here is how the playoff standings look heading into the second playoff race at Gateway later today.

Playoff Scenarios for St Louis today

So to (over)simplify things for newer fans, 16 drivers qualified from the regular season for the playoffs. Now they race over three weekends to cut the field down to 12.

The top 12 drivers in the standings after Bristol next weekend will advance to the Round of 12, and the bottom four will be eliminated.

Of course, the simplest way for any driver to automatically progress is to win a race in this first stage (Darlington, St Louis or Bristol). As we said, Chase Briscoe already did just that.

After this first stage, we get another three-race stage to determine the Round of 8, and then another three to cut the field down to 4.

Those four drivers will then race off in the championship race at Phoenix on Sunday, November 2.

NASCAR St Louis lineup - who is on pole at Gateway?

Qualifying took place on Saturday at Gateway, and it was Denny Hamlin who claimed pole for Joe Gibbs Racing. Logano meanwhile, had another rough day - he starts down in 13th. The full lineup for today’s race looks like this:

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